Civilization:The West And The Rest By Niall Ferguson

1598 words - 6 pages

In this intricate time, Niall Ferguson, the author of Civilization: The West and the Rest, presents a story and what appears as a defense of the ascend of the west to supremacy and its unrivalled influence in restructuring the world of today. The West seems to be on the defensive, confronted economically, politically, and militarily by the rise of China (delete this: as well as politically along with militarily) by a gesture of Islamist abhorrence (what do you mean by “as well as politically and militarily by a gesture of Islamist abhorrence”? It’s not clear. Are you trying to convey the idea that the West’s political and military interventions in the Muslim world are a sign of their defensive posture and abhorrence of the Muslim world? Or do you mean to say that the West is on the defensive due to Islamist hatred of the West?). Perhaps the major interior challenge is the examination of western culture, which subjugated American education following World War II and has been under siege for a long time. Therefore, western culture has been harder to discover in our schools and colleges ([Symbol]consider rephrasing this sentence). "When tackled, the west slandered owing to (by “slandered owing to…” do you mean “attributed”? I don’t think slandered is the right word here. Slandered means “insulted”) its history of oppression and imperialism, a supposed addiction to conflict and its barring of women and non-whites from privileges and rights. Some condemn its study as slender, limiting, haughty, and discriminatory, emphasizing that it has small or no worth for those originating outside Europe (Ferguson 22).
Ferguson considers otherwise (although it is understood what you mean by this sentence, as a topic sentence, it should be a bit more complex. E.g.: “Ferguson disagrees with those that condemn the study of Western culture”). Ferguson is a professor at Harvard University and is conscious of the faults and blemishes of the west. The author flatly rebuffs the outlook of those who discover nothing valuable in western culture, terming their position as ridiculous. He distinguishes between the good and the bad aspects of western culture and posits that in contrast with other cultures, the enhanced side appeared on top. A number of the remarks in Civilization: The West and the Rest will not triumph over Ferguson’s contemporaries as among the sophisticated and trendy in school today. He chastises critics who talk scornfully about Eurocentrism, as if it was distasteful chauvinism. The scientific revolt was, by whichever scientific gauge, entirely Eurocentric. Ferguson offers high opinion to the academic and scientific inputs of China in addition to Islam; however, he makes it apparent that contemporary science and technology are essentially Western products. Ferguson questions whether a non-Western state can acquire scientific knowledge without compliance to other crucial western ideals like private property, liberty, the rule of law, and a representative...

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